The secret waters of Liscia

Water carries life within: nothing could be and exist without it. Water is also frightful, because of its power, which destroys and obliterates. A force and a blessing of nature, water is mirror of life and death, its very appearance - transparent, clear, impossible to hold, yet felt on our bodies when we bathe and in our mouth when we drink - is almost a metaphor of the spiritual and physical world’s nature.

Tradition and literature taught us the Ancient and the people of the Middle Ages knew a thing or two about such ambivalence: water, in the shape of rivers, streams or lakes, turned into the channel unifying the real to the surreal, this world to the other. In Hades, where the Greeks and the Romans placed the souls of the departed, there were five rivers, the Styx, the Lethe, the Phlegethon, the Cocytus and the Acheron, across which horrifying Charon would ferry people’s souls.

And it is, indeed, the Acheron, but that of Dante’s Inferno, that better represents the liminality of water in literature, one bank filled with souls still believing to be alive, the other with those sorrowfully contemplating Hell. The anonymous author of the British Medieval poem The Pearl also imagined the encounter between the soul of the young child protagonist of his verses and her father of the banks of a river. And in Sir Orfeo, another beautiful Medieval piece inspired by the Classical myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, it is again by a river that Eurydice is kidnapped by the Fairy King, embodiment of the Otherworld. Last but not least, we shouldn’t forget the waters of Lourdes: here again, the miraculous - for those who believe - presence of Mary transformed spring water into a healing means, an instrument of connection between the mundane and the spiritual.

Liscia is a charming little place, a village of just over 700 in the Chieti province of Abruzzo, perched on top of a gently sloping high hill

Forgive the complex flight of fancy, but when it comes to the waters of Liscia, such preamble seemed apt. Why? Because Liscia and the history of its waters have a bit of everything you’ve just read: the miraculous power of waters blessed by the Holy, the diaphanous curtain separating the material from the immaterial, a legend rooted in local heritage, just like the words of Dante and the anonymous writers of Medieval Britain were in theirs.

First and foremost, Liscia is a charming little place, a village of just over 700 in the Chieti province of Abruzzo, perched on top of a gently sloping high hill. We’re in the midst of the Apennines, in an area known for its beauty and for the richness of its food. Here, the cult of Saint Michael -Archangel and celestial soldier extraordinaire - finds roots that are geological, historical and mythical. Geological because what you’re about to read took place in a 10 meters-long natural cave, today transformed into a church. Here, spring water naturally seeps through the stone in a myriad of stalactite-forming droplets. Historical because it was the D’Avalos family, earls of the region, who wanted to transform the cave into a place of cult in the 18th century when its waters, thanks to the diffusion of tales of Faith and wonder, were sought after by hundreds. And mythical - or miraculous, depending on how you’d like to read it - because of the chain of events I’m about to tell you.

Today, believers still travel from the whole of Italy, but especially from Abruzzo’s neighboring regions, to say a prayer to Saint Michael in Liscia, but especially to drink the miraculous water of its stone-made chapel

You see, there was, a very long time ago, a shepherd from the nearby village of Palmoli who had the habit of bringing his cows to pasture in the area. Among them, a young, restless bull which would go missing almost every morning, only to return before sunset, just on time for the trip home. Curiosity had the best of our shepherd who, one faithful day, decided to follow the bull. Imagine the stupor in his eyes when he noticed the woods opening up like theatre curtains at the passage of his animal. Imagine the incredulity, when he saw it sitting at the entrance of a cave. Imagine the awe when he saw Michael the Archangel appearing: so much it was, the shepherd fainted. When he woke up, he felt incredibly thirsty and immediately cool, crisp water started running from the walls of the cave. After he quenched his thirst, the shepherd returned home without his bull, but with a sturdier faith in God.

When looking at the tale from a more historical point of view, it’s easy to see how the typical mingling of ancient pagan cults and Christianity may have brought to the creation of the legend. The area is known for the presence of several geological formations of interest and of many caves. These were commonly used as places of worship by local polytheist cults and they were, quite simply, transformed into Christian ones when the people of the area converted.

In the 18th century, the D’Avalos decided to build a church around the cave, probably to regulate the ever growing stream of faithful entering and exiting their territory. Today, believers still travel from the whole of Italy, but especially from Abruzzo’s neighboring regions, to say a prayer to Saint Michael in Liscia, but especially to drink the miraculous water of its stone-made chapel: it still seeps through stone, and people rub handkerchiefs and holy objects in it to bring home some otherwordly protection.

The water is also collected in an open stone basin, from which pilgrims can drink. The most suggestive ceremony taking place in the cave of Saint Michael is certainly that on the 8th of May, when pilgrims from Liscia and nearby San Buono walk in procession from two separate directions to the church: here, they drink the holy water of Saint Michael and assist to Mass. As it often happens in the Italian countryside, the past remains alive during these celebrations with a photographic vividness: just as it would have happened decades, even centuries ago, after Mass pilgrims share bread and “ventricina,” a typical local cold cut, in a moment of commensality and joy bound to bring many back to their childhood, to simpler but possibly happier and more genuinely good times.

The tradition is repeated at the end of the month of May and, of course, on the 29th of September, when the Catholic Calendar celebrates Saint Michael.